John Abraham talks about controversies, films and relationships

A conversation devised to get John Abraham to talk about his personal life could well resemble a chess board in an advanced stage of the game. He stonewalls every attempt to outwit him into confessions, matches every probe with clever wordplay.

Yet, he gives us enough bits to build a story on.

We are chatting inside his vanity van, where he is sprawled on a bean bag, dressed in a prisoner’s uniform for Shootout At Wadala. He has a swollen ankle, a nose that has just stopped bleeding & a deep gash on his back, he tells us. But before we can show sympathy, he laughs it off. Just as he laughs when he ask him point-blank: is he married? Engaged?

Not true, he says with a vehement shake of his head and then gets dead serious.

“There have been a lot of speculations..assumptions. There is no truth and nothing in what I have not spoken about. I am fiercely guarding this part of my life and I don’t want to speak about it because it puts it (the relationship) in a space that is very callous.”

Clever, but we persist.

We know how John met the pretty investment banker Priya Runchal at a gym, and were gym buddies before they started dating. And how, over the months, the couple have reportedly gone from strength to strength. Had all those wildfire rumours about their engagement & marriage been -just that- rumours?

For once, John gets that faraway look, pauses, chooses his words carefully.

“Right now, my relationship is in its very delicate, initial stages. People are eager to see a resolution I know but I want to be in a space where I can say confidently, ‘I am here now and I am settled and I am going to do it, I will’. It is too early,” he says.

Unlike the highly-visible Bipasha (Basu), Priya is almost not there. And it seems, her phantom-like presence is by design.

Says John, “This is very sacred. You will never see me put my relationship on a pedestal for the world to see..you will never see me with my partner (note, he NEVER refers to Priya by her name) at a film function.”

It occurs to us that the only two occasions when the paparazzi saw John and Priya together were at the Mumbai Marathon and later at the launch of a book by John’s cousin. Barring the first sighting at a five-star of course.

We ask him if it is easier to create this cocoon of privacy when your partner is not someone from the industry. John does not entirely agree.

“It is about me more than anybody else. I needed to give this relationship a lot of care, respect and privacy and the credibility that it deserves,” he says. But for now, he is happy to draw the line between the very accessible star John and the private person that he is.

Speaking of which, we wonder if it still hurts when critics count his number of expressions.

“It does not. People who have seen Water rate my performance highly. Kabul Express, No Smoking are now considered great works. I am aware that my physicality outshines my performance, but someone told me that I should be apologetic about being a star,” he emphasises before making, what may appear to be an audacious comparison.

“When Heath Ledger’s father went up to his receive his dead son’s award, he said, “Heath had a silent determination to be accepted by all of you. Till Dark Knight, or Brokeback Mountain, he was considered below par,” says John, adding how his “silently determined” portrayal of Manya Surve and the upcoming Jaffna, may just do to his image what Dark Knight did to Ledger’s.

But the media has been fair, says John, especially when he broke up with Bipasha. “I was surprised. I thought, since I was the man, fingers will be pointed at me. The reportage about where my relationship went wrong and where my relationship is today has been unbiased. People were not judgemental then, they are not judgemental today.”

And that, says John, has helped him handle this new phase in his personal and professional life with a lot of maturity.

There is a lot going on with him - his production house is ready with Vicky Donor, on a subject that he believes is extremely relevant (the marketing background shows up when he rattles off infertility statistics). Besides, there is Manya Surve, a character, he is “living and breathing”.

Lessons from the tumultuous 2011 and the breakup?

“Yes, I am a lot calmer, more responsible. I am, for the first time, spending a lot more time with my family and I have learnt to handle my personal space with a lot more care,” he says, between mouthfuls of nutrition bars. But that does not mean you can expect John Abraham to settle down to domesticity any time soon.

“I am a family person. But in my heart, I’m a bohemian. I expect my partner to travel the world with me. I am footloose, and fancy free and I think it is exotic not to know what John Abraham is up to!”